Lesson 1 - The Signs of the System

The signs of this System are formed from the two simplest of geometrical figures, namely the Straight Line and the Circle.

The straight line both full length and half length takes the following directions indicated by the arrow:

A large and small circle are used, the latter being about half the size of the former:

These circles are now divided first by a line drawn through them Vertically thereby giving us these four signs: . Next by a line dividing them Horizontally and giving us the following signs: i.e. . And lastly, the circles are cut into quadrants: = =

The following supplementary signs, chiefly used as diacritical or distinguishing marks, are also made use of: a dot , a dash , and the acute , and grave accents.

The Consonants formed from the Straight line

B	P	drawn straight downwards
D	T	drawn from left to right
G	K	drawn obliquely from right to left
V	F	drawn obliquely from left to right
R	L	drawn upwards from left to right

Observe that the soft and longer sounds B, D, G, V are expressed by the longer lines whilst their corresponding hard and shorter sounds P, T, K, F are expressed by the shorter ones.

The consonant R has two distinct shades of sound, one hard or trill-sound as in broil, umbrella; the other is a soft and frequently barely audible sound as in door, fear, heart, this latter may be distinguished from the former by a dash written in the middle of the sign: .

The Consonants formed from the Semi-circles

S	Z	drawn from left to right
Sh	Zh	drawn from left to right
M	N & NG	drawn downwards

It will be noticed that the soft sounds Z and ZH as in zeal, as, vision, are distinguished from their corresponding hard sounds by a dot. The difference between the two nasals N and NG is also indicated by a dot.

The Consonants CH J TH hard TH soft

The true sound-value of the consonant CH is found in the words church, chariot, chess, etc.

The corresponding soft sound is J as in jerk, giant, jest, etc. CH is formed from two quadrants of a small circle written in the same direction as the sign for K viz .

J is written the same way but two quadrants of a large circle are used viz .

Since TH is a blending of the sounds of T and D, we write its equivalent phonetic character which is formed from two quadrants of a circle joined together, in the same direction as T and D viz i.e. .

The soft sound as in There is written full length .

The hard sound as in Thistle is written half length .

The Consonants Y and W

Y. A small semi-circle in this position , written downwards and having a dot above is Y.

W. The consonant sound W is represented by a quadrant of large circle traced upwards, on the right hand side of which a dot is placed viz

The joining together of consonants

In order to connect two consonants together we add the sign of the second to the termination of the first, writing the compound sign with one stroke without lifting the pen.

Examples: kl , lk , mt , tm , sg , st , gr , rg , chr , rch , sd , dj , jr , lp , pl , thm , mth , nr , rth , thr